This research inputs into the contemporary national and international debate regarding the digital archives of architectural drawings. The proposed goal is to use current dynamic and interactive fruition modes to conserve and transmit crucial data required to understand and disseminate architectural culture to future generations.
The objective is to develop a `Pilot Project¿ with which to create a shareable, implementable and interoperable platform that will make it possible to dynamically and simultaneously exploit the extensive data in architectural drawings archives and allow interaction with other internal and external resources.
The Drawings Archive of the DSDRA Department of Sapienza University contains over 80,000 drawings; the intent is to make a consultable digital space available to the scientific community at large and to the general public involved or interested in the world of architecture and culture. Based on the original drawings, this space will provide contemporary critiques and interpretations focusing on the history, representation, and restoration of architecture.
The conservation and transmission of the unique culture of Sapienza University ¿ didactic and research activities - is yet another objective. Indeed, the documentation in the archive represents a priceless historical heritage, both tangible and intangible, of the expertise, methods, knowledge and cultural environment of the life of our School.
The project intends to develop a portal that will contain, systemise, transmit, and share not only all the documents, but also all the information and products produced by this research. The portal will have an interactive map with georeferenced 1D, 2D and 3D models, cartographic material, photographs, drawings, texts, taggable three-dimensional models, videos, and interactive materials that users can use to interact directly with the heritage in question.
This is a historic moment in time, when the format used by the media is changing, and so is the method used to convey information; we are entering an era of convergence and integration between the cultural and digital worlds. The potential on offer depends not only on the tools used by technology, but also on the relationship between those responsible for creating knowledge-gathering procedures and the final users. It is what Henry Jenkins calls ¿Convergent Culture¿ (Apogeo Education, 2007), where convergence is not only technological, but a bona fide cultural process that creates a link between those who systemise the data to be shared and the users who actively act thanks to the use of technological and digital tools, and by so doing trigger the convergence of different cultures as a surplus value.
Man has always used drawing to express his thoughts; the culture of an age is concisely coagulated in graphic signs and lines. As a result, drawings are as important as medieval manuscripts which, apart from their contents, also transmit part of the soul and historical and cultural environment of those who wrote and drew them. This is why this important evidence should be interpreted, just like codices.
These multiple levels of interpretation provide different kinds of scientific data; the latter will be processed thanks to the expertise of the three disciplinary sectors of History, Drawing and Restoration of architecture, an expertise that makes the interpretations and critiques unique and original. Our specific skill is in fact knowing how to observe, understand and interpret the `codes¿ of architectural drawings.
The novelty lies in revealing their intangible importance to users through the description of the individual artefact and the links that develop during exploration.
Thematic itineraries will illustrate the buildings and urban spaces; scholars will be able to explore the latter at different levels and citizens and tourists will be able to use them as guides. These itineraries will be established after an interdisciplinary discussion between the participants as well as careful assessment of the available material; they will focus on urban environments, special building types (churches, buildings, oratories, etc.) or architectural elements (fountains, doors, bridges, etc.) and will provide synchronic or diachronic narratives depending on how they are interpreted (fascist buildings in Rome; courtyard houses in the 15th, 16th and 17th century; etc.).
These itineraries will include the archival drawings, the aforementioned documents, the in-depth historical and cultural information provided by our studies (history and restoration sectors), and other kinds of representations, also developed by the research group (drawing sector). These representations can, amongst other things, convey artistic values, perceptive aspects, and urban atmospheres. With this in mind, we will produce emotional representations, real life drawings, chromatic surveys, night views, graphic storytelling, and contemporary graphic narratives that will then be linked to the historical and archival documentation.
All this will be embellished with integrated surveys, 2D and 3D reconstructions of several buildings or particularly important architectural elements, as well as videos and animations. Integration of the expertise and skills present in these three disciplinary sectors will also allow us to produce digital models of several select artefacts and illustrate how the buildings or urban environments have evolved over the years.
The digital drawings archive will also be dynamic and participated. In fact, at a later stage external users will be able to add contents after authentication and registration. A special regulation will be drafted and submitted for approval by the scientific committee (see, on this issue, the proposed web portal involving the sharing of architectural material developed by the Sapienza Department of Architecture and Design: https://archidiap.com/benvenuto-in-archidiap/).
Another possible direction that the project could take would be to create an `urban musealisation¿ using QR technology to access the more in-depth information. Interactive plaques could be designed and applied to the exterior of specific buildings. The objective of this kind of communication project would be to not only make the public at large more aware of our architectural heritage, but also provide citizens with a historical image of the city.
The fact this project is an applied research using heterogeneous study objects that can be enjoyed dynamically and interactively by users with different interests will ensure a strong cultural-scientific impact and permit the exchange of knowledge and information about the History, Drawing and Conservation of Architecture that over the years has characterised the School of the Faculty of Architecture at Sapienza University.